Complete with wall-length windows, this library lives below a lofted hangout space inside a private studio in Seattle, Washington. The owner can slide down from the loft to the library using a built-in gold pole.

Designed by Gianni Botsford Architects in Costa Rica, this private backyard library has its own entrance and deck leading out from the main house.

Famous fashion designer and icon Karl Lagerfeld stacks his books horizontally in his floor-to-ceiling home library. Located in Paris, the library looks like it's turned on its side.

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The "Skywalker Ranch" — film producer George Lucas' private retreat — houses a research library with a magnificent glass ceiling dome in Nicasio, California. Though the ranch is not open to the public, filmmakers can make an appointment to visit.

The architects from design firm Ilai created this beautiful library for a private home in Zurich, Switzerland. It includes a small window near the armchair, so that when the owners look up from a book, they can peer out into their yard.

Ilai

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The books in this London library are hidden in a wooden staircase, which leads up to a lofted bedroom. Levitate Architects designed the library as a solution to the residents' book-storage problem (the staircase can hold about 2,000 volumes).

The home library inside this $18 million Manhattan townhouse, which serves as a three-unit co-op, stretches two flights. When it was built in the 1930s, it was home to the Hans Hoffman Art School.

Richard Macksey, a professor and director of the humanities department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, owns a home library with over 70,000 books and manuscripts. It's one of the largest private collections in Maryland.

Inspired by the process of creating the 30,000-volume library for his 15th century home in Loire, France, writer Alberto Manguel wrote an entire book pondering the meaning of libraries, called "The Library at Night."